 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Gravelotte
When we first arrived in position there, a platoon of infantry was sent forward
from Gravelotte to occupy a position in the bottom of the valley a quarter-mile to the
east. Since we had a FO with them, I went down the road to visit them. On the map, it
looked easy - right down the road. What the map did not know, was that the road was
blocked by an abatis.
Most French roads of any consequence are bordered by a row of trees on either
side. In peacetime they add to the beauty of the landscape, furnish shade for horses
pulling wagons, and prevent erosion of the soil. In wartime they are often felled across
the road as a barrier to enemy traffic - like blowing up a bridge. I suppose in the olden
days the trees were chopped down by large crews using axes or cross-cut saws, but by
WW II there were some very sophisticated explosives that did the job faster and more
efficiently. The one that was favored was called Composition C, and if that was what was
used on the Gravelotte abatis, it was very effective. When you ducked under the trunk of
one tree, you ran into the thickest branches of the next. Finally I wormed and fought my
way down to the platoon, and was surprised to find they were occupying a round pit
maybe thirty feet across and with steeply sloping sides. I suppose the platoon leader
thought it would be a good place to fire out of, keeping most of one's body below ground
level, but it looked to me as if it would also be a good place to fire into, there being no
convenient exit. A couple of hand grenades or a lucky hit with a mortar shell could have
wiped them out. I didn't raise the question, though, assuming that an infantryman would
know more about these things than I.
Wrong again! The following day a small enemy force found them and opened
fire, and our platoon broke a number of records getting out of there. (I hope they found an
easier exit than through the abatis.) Our FO had to abandon his radio, much to the disgust
of Capt Jacobs, who knew that with that radio, which had its crystals pre-set on our
battalion channels, an enemy could listen in on everything we said, or jam our channels
with interference. I believe he reported the loss and got an authorization to change our
channels.
Most of the six weeks we were there, things were comparatively quiet in our
sector. The 357th Inf Rgt was tied up in heavy fighting at the town of Maizieres le Metz,
but the 359th action was limited to patrolling and trying to catch enemy patrols. There
were some minor enemy attacks, but they were mostly feints, probably to make sure we
were still there.
There were casualties. I mentioned the loss of Dull and Smith, and perhaps even
more disheartening was the death of one of our forward observers whom I never met.
103
|
 |
|